Interconnect and Speaker Cable Burn In

keep in mind that I am somewhat technically challenged.

From a technical perspective, cable burn in is totally unnecessary. I have never seen an engineering text book or scientifically peer reviewed paper that claims that burn in is required for an audio cable.

From a subjective perspective....there are all kinds of anecdotal evidence about burn in. Just when and why burn in stops after a few days, months or up to a year is still unclear.

If burn-in is real then the type of music, voltage and current levels used to burn in ought to be extremely important...

Just use them.
They will break in on their own.

Since these threads go off course, the important question to be answered, Yes you absolutley need a Load at the other end of speaker cables or interconnects, if in fact "burn in " whether you believe in it or not is to work… The signal from the positive cable seeking the negative cable to flow back to ground, otherwise there is no signal traveling thru because the circuit is not complete. People don't realize the center pin of an interconnect is the only one providing the signal in the first place, and the ground ring is getting it back to activate the circuit allowing signal flow in the first place otherwise power is not going anywhere, and the cable is doing nothing until that positive tap sees the ground tap.

Speakers are doing the same thing, the positive signal flows into the speaker, goes thru the crossover, and drivers and exits thru the negative speaker tap applying the signal to your negative speaker cable or ground and the ground cable is actually flowing the opposite direction… So think about it and obviously the positive sitting on the floor next to the negative cable would obviously not transmit the signal from one to the other unless you have a magic carpet :-) Kinda interesting since speaker cables and interconnects are sometimes marked directional, but this direction is pointing to show you the signal carrying cable into the load (positive + Red whatever), cause the arrow for your negative or ground signal would be going the opposite direction. So your cable is a Series connection and to get power it must flow in and out of a load. So whether this process is necessary, well fact is cables are electrical carrying and in opposing direction components of your system, can't hurt to try and "Cook" them. But I will not debate whether it works for the better or not.

So regardless if it is a viable action or not, YOU MUST have a load to make it do anything!

Indeed...the load will have impact on the volatge and current levels in the cable - so it is not just the music (signal) that is critical but also the load.

You need to consider
Source Signal ( type music, frequency content, in some cases test signals may provide the most balanced break-in)
Load ( active, passive or a combination )
Volume setting ( determines Volatge and current level in concert with load )
Time ( length of time used to burn in and possibly the times of day used to burn - obviously no point burning in during the morning if you listen at night, as everyone knows that the grid power varies throughout the day)

Furthermore, since amps, tubes, capacitors, speakers and sources all break-in then you need to add break-in times together, otherwise your cable will only be broken in for how your tube amp or speaker sounded 300 hours ago ...in essence it needs to break-in synergistically once ALL components are broken-in)

...this is if you believe.

I agree with Sugarbrie - just use them and over the next few weeks, they will burn in/settle in your system. Whether or not you will notice a difference depends on your system - and ears.

Soren